Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1812 - 1. INTRODUCTION

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### 1. INTRODUCTION

This memo replaces for RFC 1716, "Requirements for Internet Gateways" ([INTRO:1]).

This memo defines and discusses requirements for devices that perform the network layer forwarding function of the Internet protocol suite. The Internet community usually refers to such devices as IP routers or simply routers; The OSI community refers to such devices as intermediate systems. Many older Internet documents refer to these devices as gateways, a name which more recently has largely passed out of favor to avoid confusion with application gateways.

An IP router can be distinguished from other sorts of packet switching devices in that a router examines the IP protocol header as part of the switching process. It generally removes the Link Layer header a message was received with, modifies the IP header, and replaces the Link Layer header for retransmission. The authors of this memo recognize, as should its readers, that many routers support more than one protocol. Support for multiple protocol suites will be required in increasingly large parts of the Internet in the future. This memo, however, does not attempt to specify Internet requirements for protocol suites other than TCP/IP.

This document enumerates standard protocols that a router connected to the Internet must use, and it incorporates by reference the RFCs and other documents describing the current specifications for these protocols. It corrects errors in the referenced documents and adds additional discussion and guidance for an implementor.

For each protocol, this memo also contains an explicit set of requirements, recommendations, and options. The reader must understand that the list of requirements in this memo is incomplete by itself. The complete set of requirements for an Internet protocol router is primarily defined in the standard protocol specification documents, with the corrections, amendments, and supplements contained in this memo.

This memo should be read in conjunction with the Requirements for Internet Hosts RFCs ([INTRO:2] and [INTRO:3]). Internet hosts and routers must both be capable of originating IP datagrams and receiving IP datagrams destined for them. The major distinction between Internet hosts and routers is that routers implement forwarding algorithms, while Internet hosts do not require forwarding capabilities. Any Internet host acting as a router must adhere to the requirements contained in this memo.

The goal of open system interconnection dictates that routers must function correctly as Internet hosts when necessary. To achieve this, this memo provides guidelines for such instances. For simplification and ease of document updates, this memo tries to avoid overlapping discussions of host requirements with [INTRO:2] and [INTRO:3] and incorporates the relevant requirements of those documents by reference. In some cases the requirements stated in [INTRO:2] and [INTRO:3] are superseded by this document.

A good-faith implementation of the protocols produced after careful reading of the RFCs should differ from the requirements of this memo in only minor ways. Producing such an implementation often requires some interaction with the Internet technical community, and must follow good communications software engineering practices. In many cases, the requirements in this document are already stated or implied in the standard protocol documents, so that their inclusion here is, in a sense, redundant. They were included because some past implementation has made the wrong choice, causing problems of interoperability, performance, and/or robustness. This memo includes discussion and explanation of many of the requirements and recommendations. A simple list of requirements would be dangerous, because:

- Some required features are more important than others, and some features are optional.

- Some features are critical in some applications of routers but irrelevant in others.

- There may be valid reasons why particular vendor products that are designed for restricted contexts might choose to use different specifications.

However, the specifications of this memo must be followed to meet the general goal of arbitrary router interoperation across the diversity and complexity of the Internet. Although most current implementations fail to meet these requirements in various ways, some minor and some major, this specification is the ideal towards which we need to move.

These requirements are based on the current level of Internet architecture. This memo will be updated as required to provide additional clarifications or to include additional information in those areas in which specifications are still evolving.

1.1 Reading this Document

1.1.1 Organization
1.1.2 Requirements
1.1.3 Compliance

1.2 Relationships to Other Standards
1.3 General Considerations

1.3.1 Continuing Internet Evolution
1.3.2 Robustness Principle
1.3.3 Error Logging
1.3.4 Configuration

1.4 Algorithms

Next: 1.1 Reading this Document

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1812 - 1. INTRODUCTION